Pinkel vows to raise the bar

Tuesday

Missouri football Coach Gary Pinkel's daughter, Erin, called him sometime in the last few days with surprising news.

"I hear you're retiring," he recalled her saying. "I said, 'I am?' "

Not quite. Whispers of Pinkel's departure from MU were greatly exaggerated — or, in this case, unfounded.

Two days after a 30-point loss at Texas A&M ended Missouri's season, Pinkel was up at 5 a.m. lifting weights, ready to tackle the challenges left in the wake of Missouri's first losing season since 2004.

"I love what I do," said Pinkel, who seemed dumbfounded by the rumors he was planning to step down after 12 years at Missouri. "I also have a responsibility here, to build this program. It was handed to me … to build a respected national program. You know, we've done pretty good until this year. We've slipped a little bit, and it's my job to get it back."

After seven consecutive winning seasons and bowl appearances, Missouri is getting an early start on offseason activities, and though he said he'll evaluate every piece of his program like he does after every season, Pinkel plans to keep his coaching staff intact. Pinkel said he expected all nine of his full-time assistants back for 2013 and will not reshuffle their coaching assignments.

Pinkel outlined his long-held philosophy on managing staff — he doesn't make changes for the sake of change — and expressed faith in his coaches, six of whom have been with him for at least 17 years.

"I'll never have anyone working for us that's not good enough to be here," he said. "That's the priority of our football program. There's nothing personal here. It never has been. … If a guy's not good enough, he's gone. OK? That's how I do things."

Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden said he would not recommend Pinkel make any staff changes when they meet formally to evaluate the state of the program.

"I don't ever do that," Alden said. "My thing is you want to empower your head coaches to do what they do, to run their programs the way that's consistent with our core values. Gary does a great job with that."

Pinkel, 90-61 in 12 seasons at MU, insisted the team's 5-7 record had little to do with adjusting to the Southeastern Conference. Instead, he pointed to injuries along the offensive line, multiple injuries to quarterback James Franklin and the Tigers' inability to finish close games. Missouri was 3-3 in games decided by seven points or less. MU's schedule, rated the country's second-most difficult by the Sagarin computer rankings, included games against five teams ranked in the top 10 of the current BCS standings.

But it was four-point home losses to Vanderbilt and Syracuse that will be remembered as missed chances.

"I have a lot of confidence in Coach Pinkel," Alden said. "I don't have any question about that. Are we disappointed? Yeah. That" season is "absolutely disappointing. We want to be able to get back to bowl games."

Asked about his job security and relationship with Alden, Pinkel pointed to his overall track record, specifically noting Missouri's 53 wins since 2007, which rank 13th among teams from BCS conferences.

"I think Mike Alden and I have a good relationship," Pinkel said. "But Mike's job is to make sure we win. That's the priority. It's not, 'I like Gary Pinkel.' It's to win. He's always supported to me. … I'm very disappointed in this year, but I'm very proud in the consistency of our program."

Pinkel touched on several other topics:

He has not spoken to junior defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson about his plans for next year, but he expects Richardson to enter the NFL draft. "If I was a betting man, I would suggest he's going to go," he said. "I think he'll be projected as a first-round pick."

The quarterback job will be up for grabs this spring — like every other position on the team. But Pinkel made a point to mention former quarterback Brad Smith, who as a redshirt freshman in 2002 won the job over senior returning starter Kirk Farmer, perhaps suggesting Franklin, a senior next year, will face legitimate competition from sophomore-to-be Corbin Berkstresser and redshirt freshman Maty Mauk.

Tailback Henry Josey, out since injuring his knee in November 2011, is expected to participate in spring practices. "It's amazing," Pinkel said. "When you see him out there in spring football, it's going to be really interesting. … I get chills talking about it."

Asked about handling distractions from his personal life — Pinkel and his wife of 39 years divorced this fall — he said he's kept his focus on his job. "You don't let anything interfere with taking care of the job you need to do," he said. "I have no problem doing that."

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